In 2013, Colin Kaepernick was on the cover of this magazine because he was one of the best football players in the world. In 2017, Colin Kaepernick is on GQ’s cover once again—but this time it is because he isn’t playing football. And it’s not because he’s hurt, or because he’s broken any rules, or because he’s not good enough. Approximately 90 men are currently employed as quarterbacks in the NFL, as either starters or reserves, and Colin Kaepernick is better—indisputably, undeniably, flat-out better—than at least 70 of them. He is still, to this day, one of the most gifted quarterbacks on earth. And yet he has been locked out of the game he loves—blackballed—because of one simple gesture: He knelt during the playing of our national anthem. And he did it for a clear reason, one that has been lost in the yearlong storm that followed. He did it to protest systemic oppression and, more specifically, as he said repeatedly at the time, police brutality toward black people.

This is so laughable. I’d buy an argument that Kaepernick is a top 40 quarterback on the planet right now. That at least seems reasonable, and there’s probably enough evidence to back that up. However, it’s flat out insanity to claim he’s better than “at least 70” of current NFL quarterbacks. There’s less than a zero percent chance that’s a true claim.

GQ is essentially arguing that Kaepernick is not only good enough to start but is better than a majority of NFL starting gunslingers. Give me a break. Was he up there several years ago? Yes he was, but times have changed. Defenses got wise on how to stop Kaepernick, and they exposed him for not being as great as Harbaugh made him look for the San Francisco 49ers.

He’s better than some backups for sure, but signing him would cause such a headache for any team. What owner and general manager are going to start a media circus for a backup quarterback? It’s flat out not going to happen.

Congratulations, GQ. You named an unemployed athlete as citizen of the year and then went on to make some ridiculous arguments in support of him. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess there aren’t a ton of diehard NFL fans working for the publication. Nobody who knows the sport would ever have written this article or signed off on it.

TRUMP: ‘THE ONLY THING THAT’S DOING WELL IN THE NFL IS THE PREGAME… THE NFL HAS TO CHANGE.‘